Its one of the dog days of summer, and Arturo Castro, who shot to fame in Broad City and Narcos, has been running around town promoting his new Comedy Central show, Alternatino. The sketch show a quirky series in the vein of Inside Amy Schumer, sees Castro play 45 different characters as he explores sex, stereotypes and identity politics and it has earned him rave reviews.

But Castros success didnt come overnight more than a decade in the making, he proudly points out, it wouldnt have happened if not for women: Every person thats ever helped me out in this business has been a woman. His mother took out a loan to send him to school in the U.S. from his native Guatemala, his manager is a woman and then, of course, there are Broad City creators Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, whom hell get to later.

Castros mom was with him when he recently took his extended Guatemalan family to the Alternatino premiere. Afterward, they walked out into Times Square, where they were greeted by a billboard of his face in character and the name Arturo Castro staring down at the crowds.

I thought I was going to have to change my name when I first moved to the States because I thought Arturo Castro sounded too ethnic, he tells me. [So] to be able to see it on a billboard is a great honor.